Well...it has certainly been a crazy couple of weeks hasn't it guys. The start of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new challenge to the world. New rules on social interactions, teaching people to not resort to panic when shopping or managing the spread of the virus, and weirdly allowing everyone to learn more about themselves while staying at home as much as possible. I still do not know what to think of everything that is happening in the world right now. The steps governments have taken to try a slow the spread of the virus are necessary although I think the media needs to do a better job at communicating everything with the public. In my opinion the media should take partial blame for people fear-mongering and buying bulk of unnecessary items ("I mean everyone knows toilet paper can stop infections right...?...sigh..."). I am no journalist, but just releasing articles with little information trying to scare people doesn't help anyone, but I digress.
I wanted to release this blog to talk about how I am coping and adapting to the new social distancing rules and self-isolation at home. It has been an interesting challenge because I have trained myself to work while in the lab or office, and relax and destress while at home. Now I have to combine work and relaxation together under the same roof. Let us dive in!
Setting Up a Work Space at Home
When I received an email from my institution (Western University, Ontario) saying that classes will now be taken online and graduate students who want to work from home have permission to do so, I started to think maybe I should transition to working from home for a while. In the past when I tried to work from home I found it difficult to concentrate. With easy access to movie and TV show streaming apps such as Netflix, kitchen tempting me to just cook something light, go for a run if the weather is nice, or get lost on social media or reading a book unrelated to my research. It is hard, and I like to think I am not the only person in the world with these same issues. I know it would be difficult, but on the day of receiving that email, I grabbed as many textbooks as I could fit into my backpack, backed up data onto my Onedrive and lab server, made sure my external hard drive was connected to my lab computer, and packed up my research notebooks and brought them all to my home. Once I had everything back home, I realized I needed set up a spot in my home for work, separate from my room where I normally read or watch movies. I hate to admit that it took me longer than I hoped to set up a work space...it took me a week... I am currently writing this blog from my new work space. I set up a table and chair with a side couch stand and a lamb in the corner of a room and made it my work space for the foreseeable future. If you would like to see what it looks like you can see a picture of it at the end of this post. From my work space, I plan to catch up on writing and prepare the next two research papers, which will be the second chapter and part of the third chapter of my thesis. Maybe this pandemic is a blessing in disguise for research reading and writing.
Social Distancing - How Far Should We Go?
The World Health Organization (WHO) and governments around the world have been strongly recommending people follow a new social distancing to slow the spread of the COVID-19. They recommend everyone maintain at least a 2 m distance when outside of your home, only leave your home if absolutely necessary, and do not hang out in large crowds. The 2 m distance is easy enough to do when outside. Very few people are going outside and walking down streets so your chances of being caught in a crowd is very rare. Grocery stores, hospitals, and pharmacies right now is a whole other story. You might not be able to keep away from everyone at a 2 m distance. In this case, you just have to make sure you don't touch surfaces that people would regularly touch (e.g. pin pad, pens for signatures, or check-out counter tops) and avoid aisles that are crowded. For me, I have been trying to follow the social distancing as best as I can. I have only left my house to go to the grocery store twice (second time was to just grab three items so I was in and out very fast), go on runs around the neighbourhood (staying healthy is key right now), and seeing my girlfriend at her place. The latter I know some people might find difficult to accept as following social distancing, but I we are both taking it very cautiously. We both don't go anyway else except grocery stores, neither of us risk spreading the virus to a large group of people (easy for us to self-isolate ourselves if need be), and we would never risk seeing each other if one or the other felt ill. I am still trying to wrap my head around social distancing because a lot of people have different opinions on how far you should take it. Some people have shut their doors completely to everyone, while others still go to friends houses but not as regularly as before the pandemic. I am thinking of finding some articles and podcasts explaining how the social distancing should be followed and what constitutes breaking the rules. How does it fare for people without cars to get supplies? How can international students who can't leave the host country get around? These are questions that I hope people have answered or are discussing right now.
If anyone who is a graduate student currently staying at home, the podcast group I am a part of GradCast is recording an episode this week on what we think about the self-isolation and how everyone is adapting to working from home. Our social media coordinator is going to be releasing question polls soon on Instagram and Twitter asking for discussion topics and questions. If you would like to contribute to the polls, please follow @GradCastRadio (both Instagram and Twitter). I will also be retweeting the polls (@GavinOnTheMoon) and sharing them on my Instagram (@gavin4science_94).
How to Pass the Time
I have been thinking about other ways to pass the time while working from home. I mean, during the weekdays I will be reading, writing and marking TA assignments, but in the evenings and over the weekends I will need to fill in the time. Reading, movies and workouts do help but sometimes you need something else. A hobby that could become a new skill. So I kind of impulse bought an appliance on amazon last week. I bought myself a bread maker! I have always wanted to make my own bread, but never had the time to get around to trying it. I thought this is going to be the best time to do it. I also thought I would take up more cooking and baking. It will take some time to get more ingredients since supplies are delayed getting to grocery stores (nice thing about having a girlfriend who works part-time at Loblaws is you get a heads up on orders ;) ), but there are a lot of simple baking recipes that require few ingredients. Like bread, as long as you have flour, water, salt and yeast you are golden!
I wanted to make this a theme in my blogs and update you all on my cooking and baking. I will try to post a new savory and/or sweet dish and also start a series called "What Should I Make Next?". I will release polls on my Twitter and Instagram asking people to vote what they think I should make for my next post. I will give you a cheeky peak at the three options I will give everyone. We are going to start off simple for the first round:
1. White Bread
2. Whole Wheat Bread
3. Rosemary Bread
If you want to vote here, please leave a comment with your answer. I look forward to cooking and baking with you all!
RESULTS! (March 24th)
The votes are in and the winner is...Rosemary Bread!
I have a picture of the rosemary bread loaf below. I think it came out quite well! The machine was a lot louder than I thought it was going to be haha.
Before I end this post, I wanted to let everyone know that the podcast GradCast I am a part of is still recording episodes while the COVID-19 situation unfolds and eventually settles. We actually recorded an episode last night via Zoom. This episode will be posted early week so stay tuned! It features MSc student Chris Boucher from Western University's Earth Science Department.
Stay safe everyone, and until next time!